1- Woman's Birthing House

sensory details - smell of birthing house (6)

describes the bare, simple room, adds, "So this was childbirth in rural Mali in the late 20th Century." (7)

decent description of birth (7-8) - the woman's pushing, Monique's urging, the baby coming, Holloway in shock

fatigued, thinking of maternity death rate (8-9)

"It may be good for the village, and good for the baby. But was it good for the mother?" (10) she asks about the high birth rate

names the child! (10)

* I could be wrong, but it seems so important to describe the main character of a story early on (in this case Holloway herself and then Monique) - or else the reader must make it up - going on the little provided - for example all I know of Holloway is she's 22, from Ohio, this is her first birth, she's a PCV in Mali and she's nervous - it annoys me that I have only a vague idea of what the writers look like - Tidwell, Packer, Erdman, Thubron, Theroux and now Holloway) - I write this thinking of characters in fiction

Brief bio sketch - overview (11)

like The Ethnographic I, this book is written by an untrained writer - and I cringe (11)

her bathing routine - will she discover how the women deal with menstruation? pagnes! (14)

Monique describes how she became the town's midwife and health worker and Holloway stresses the town's luck (17)

a bit of culture - religion, families - Holloway asks to help cook (21)

Monique mentions her marriage is bad (24)